Audio assistance during trick play operations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11974016-B2
Application number	US-202217985491-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 11, 2022
Priority date	Nov 9, 2020
Publication date	Apr 30, 2024
Grant date	Apr 30, 2024

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, and methods are described for providing audio assistance during trick play. Users, for example, visually-impaired users, may enable audio assistance features for trick play operations and customize audio assistance settings. The audio assistance may comprise outputting one or more audio cues during trick play. The audio cues may be associated with one or more types of scenes may indicate the progress of a trick play content item. The audio cues may also indicate automatic skipping of an objectionable scene or commercial and the output of a next scene.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
causing, by a computing device and based on a trick play command received during output of a first content segment at a first rate, trick play output of the first content segment at a second rate;
determining an audio cue based on a second content segment occurring after the first content segment, wherein the determined audio cue indicates an approaching end of the trick play output of the first content segment;
determining, based on a user preference to avoid watching one or more types of content, a time for output of the determined audio cue; and
causing, during the trick play output of the first content segment and at the determined time, the output of the determined audio cue.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more types of content comprise at least one of a violent scene, sexual scene, battle scene, or bloody scene.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an input associating one or more audio cues with one or more types of scenes within a plurality of content items; and
determining a type of a scene within the second content segment,
wherein the determining the audio cue comprises determining, based on the type of the scene and the input, the audio cue.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content segment is a scene or a commercial.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the causing the output of the determined audio cue comprises causing, before start of the second content segment, the output of the determined audio cue.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the audio cue comprises determining the audio cue based on a user preference selecting a first tone for a first type of content and a second tone for a second type of content.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content segment comprises a commercial followed by a violent segment.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining the audio cue comprises determining a type of the audio cue based on a type of the second content segment.

9. An apparatus comprising:
one or more processors; and
memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
cause, based on a trick play command received during output of a first content segment at a first rate, trick play output of the first content segment at a second rate;
determine an audio cue based on a second content segment occurring after the first content segment, wherein the determined audio cue indicates an approaching end of the trick play output of the first content segment;
determine, based on a user preference to avoid watching one or more types of content, a time for output of the determined audio cue; and
cause, during the trick play output of the first content segment and at the determined time, the output of the determined audio cue.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the one or more types of content comprise at least one of a violent scene, sexual scene, battle scene, or bloody scene.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
receive an input associating one or more audio cues with one or more types of scenes within a plurality of content items;
determine a type of a scene within the second content segment; and
determine the audio cue by determining, based on the type of the scene and the input, the audio cue.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the first content segment is a scene or a commercial.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:
cause the output of the determined audio cue by causing, before start of the second content segment, the output of the determined audio cue.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause:
causing, based on a trick play command received during output of a first content segment at a first rate, trick play output of the first content segment at a second rate;
determining an audio cue based on a second content segment occurring after the first content segment, wherein the determined audio cue indicates an approaching end of the trick play output of the first content segment;
determining, based on a user preference to avoid watching one or more types of content, a time for output of the determined audio cue; and
causing, during the trick play output of the first content segment and at the determined time, the output of the determined audio cue.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the one or more types of content comprise at least one of a violent scene, sexual scene, battle scene, or bloody scene.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions, when executed, cause:
receiving an input associating one or more audio cues with one or more types of scenes within a plurality of content items;
determining a type of a scene within the second content segment; and
the determining the audio cue by causing determining, based on the type of the scene and the input, the audio cue.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the first content segment is a scene or a commercial.

Assignees

• Comcast Cable Comm Llc

Inventors

• Gray Brian

Classifications

• H04N21/4542 Primary

  Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes · CPC title

• H04N21/4394

  involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58) · CPC title

• H04N21/44008

  involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59) · CPC title

• H04N21/6587

  Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection · CPC title

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title